Browse News

10 Things Going on in Cleveland this Weekend (February 28 – March 2)

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Dubbed Adult Swim: An Underwater Tasting Adventure, tonight's whiskey and bourbon tasting event at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium will feature samples from all the whiskey and bourbon makers that we love. Old Crow, Jim Beam Black, Wild Turkey, Tullamore Dew and others will be on hand to provide samples. Light hors d'oeuvres will be served. The event has a Mardi Gras theme so expect festive decorations. it takes place from 7 to 10 tonight. Tickets are $42, $22 for designated drivers. Admission includes 20 sample tickets and a souvenir glass. (Niesel)

Photo via Facebook

What does a guitar sound like when it doesn’t sound like a guitar? Fred Frith will show you at the Transformer Station tonight. Frith brings his avant-garde, effects-laden electric guitar rig to Cleveland as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s City Stages Concert Series. The guitarist was a member of the influential experimental chamber-rock group Henry Cow in the late 1960s. As eclectic as this band’s sound was, he only moved further out of the box as his career progressed. The seminal 1974 album Guitar Solos is a haunting exercise in transforming and diversifying the sounds emanating from his guitar. Frith uses many effects pedals achieve the diverse array of sounds you hear on tracks like “Out Of Their Heads (On Locoweed)” which opens with gently plunking notes that transition to sickening howls. More recently, with his group Cosa Brava, he plays a mish-mash of folk, Celtic, prog-rock chamber music. This is sure to be a one-of-a-kind concert, as this master improviser draws influence from the room and audience at the performance. Tickets are $20, and the show starts at 7:30. (Gonzalez)

Photo via Facebook

There will be a special performance tonight at the Breen Theatre featuring the world premier of Rosie Herrera’s House Broken. A guest choreographer based in Miami, Herrera is the recipient of the 2013 Princess Grace Award for Choreography and has gained critical acclaim for her work in recent years. Two more performances — David Shimotakahara’s Luna and Amy Miller’s For the Life of Me — are on tonight’s schedule too. Together, these three works take the audience on a journey of surrealistic beauty as five dancers move to various musical compositions. Tickets start at $20. Performances are scheduled 7:30 tonight and tomorrow night. (Trenholme)

Photo via Wikipedia

Former Daily Show correspondent/guest-host John Oliver brings his sardonic stand-up comedy to Severance Hall tonight. The British comic is known for his sarcastic ripping apart of political figures and policies old and current. This Emmy Award-winning writer spews stories about how Australia was colonized by the British as a prison island but is actually a much nicer place to live than England. Another of Oliver’s anecdotes is about how two workers from the Wizard of Oz Moving Company in New York ridiculed his fear of being pushed by wind during hurricane Sandy. And if you ever thought the presidential debates were boring, Oliver’s solution is having the candidates engage in a hot dog eating contest. The show starts at 7:30, and tickets are $25. (Gonzalez)

Photo via Facebook

Through a series of interviews, director Kerry Candaele deconstructs Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in the documentary Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony. Over the years, the work has been used in a variety of political and social contexts, inspiring activists to take on Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and protesters to rise up at China's Tiananmen Square. Every December, a huge choir sings "Ode to Joy" in Japan. The movie captures the various contexts in which the music still resonates. It screens 8:55 tonight and at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets are $9. (Niesel)

Photo via Wikipedia

For its 14th anniversary weekend, Beachland Ballroom has really done itself up right. The hallowed Collinwood music venue rolls out the road construction carpet for none other than Stanley Clarke tonight. The legendary jazz bassist will be playing his iconic School Days in its entirety, along with other tunes from across his career. To the curious: If you haven’t chanced upon Clarke’s work, do check out School Days. You’ll be groovin’ hard all day. This album is a wonder of four-string magic. To those in the know, you know. We recommend cueing up “The Dancer” for now and just letting the atmospheric rhythms wash across your mind. The beauty of that song and many more will really come alive beneath the disco ball refractions of the Beachland. ‘Nuff said: This one’s gonna be special. (Sandy)

Photo via Facebook

Local singer Terry Lee Goffee regularly takes his Johnny Cash tribute all over the country. One year, the singer, who counts Cash contemporary Marty Stuart as a fan, went to upstate New York, out to Bakersfield, California, and back to his home in central Ohio. Yeah, you could say he's "been everywhere." Goffee's typical set includes almost 30 Cash classics per night, including his interpretation of Cash’s take on the Nine Inch Nails tune “Hurt.” Even if you’re not a fan of Cash (and how could you not be?), this show is a blast and a half. (Niesel)

Photo via Wikipedia

Enter VanGogh’s crazy and fascinating world through his repetitions. What are repetitions, you ask? They are a series of different perspectives on the same subject, and their subtle differences offer new insights into the artist’s perception. Featuring works you’ve probably never seen before, the exhibition opens today and aims to explore Van Gogh’s methods. There is currently quite a bit of scholarly debate over exactly how he made these and why he would take the time to reproduce such paintings. Were these reasons commercial? For apprentices’ studies? Private collections? An attempt at fine-tuning his skills? Decide for yourself as you explore these compelling pieces. The exhibit opens today at the Cleveland Museum of Art, and tickets start at $20. (Trenholme)

Photo via Facebook

Probably the best way to kickstart the week is by shaking your ass uncontrollably at B-Side's bitchin' Sunday night electronic shows. DJ Eso and Corey Grand join forces to spin anything and everything: funk, soul, hip-hop, trap, drum and bass, and all sorts of similarly ill shit. Grand's cred speaks for itself: "Sucka Free Since '88." And that same sentiment goes for the Sunday night throwdown as a whole. Work your way across Coventry all weekend and wrap up the party down at B-Side. The DJs start spinning at 10 p.m. (Eric Sandy)

Photo via IMDB

If you’re addicted to movies, stop what you’re doing and go see Blancanieves. This fabulous update of (and twist on) the Grimm Brothers’ Snow White fairytale is enchanting in every way. It’s a silent film set in 1920s Seville. A little girl who never knew her mother runs off with a troupe of dwarves and becomes a famous bullfighter. This one’s an homage to silent films that is itself a beautiful silent film. Hemingway himself would weep at its beauty and Iberian truth. The little girl is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen and auteur Pablo Berger has created a world so rich in textures and details that even without spoken dialogue, it’s rapturous to experience. If you loved The Artist and hated Brothers Grimm, you’ll fall head over heels for this gem from Spain. The film screens today at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (Sam Allard)

Dubbed Adult Swim: An Underwater Tasting Adventure, tonight's whiskey and bourbon tasting event at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium will feature samples from all the whiskey and bourbon makers that we love. Old Crow, Jim Beam Black, Wild Turkey, Tullamore Dew and others will be on hand to provide samples. Light hors d'oeuvres will be served. The event has a Mardi Gras theme so expect festive decorations. it takes place from 7 to 10 tonight. Tickets are $42, $22 for designated drivers. Admission includes 20 sample tickets and a souvenir glass. (Niesel)